In television programming, it is often the case where an individual is only interested in a single frame of video information or a very short time interval of video information. This is particularly true during news programs where an individual may only be interested in the display of the weather map or the five day weather forecast chart. Another situation where a short amount of video information is desired is the few frames of video information which show the results of the various market indicators for the stock market. Whereas, it is possible to use a video cassette recorder (VCR) to record the entire news program or any time interval of the news program, the weather information or stock information often appears at different times during the news program. An individual is still required to search through a significant portion of a news program stored on the VCR to find the piece of relevant information. Another situation arises where an individual wants to watch a program on one television station but be able to obtain the weather forecast or stock market prices being broadcast on yet another television station. Yet another situation arises where an individual wants to extract a frame of video information and the accompanying audio information from a prerecorded medium.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,398 discloses a system designed to recognize and record the number of broadcast segments in the programming received from a television station. The object of the system disclosed in U.S. Patent 4,739,398 is to maintain an accurate count of advertisements appearing on television throughout the country. The disclosed system does not lend itself to being used by a consumer to capture particular the video patterns nor does the system disclose the ability for replaying the advertisements.